Politicians join fight to keep women on British banknotes - Telegraph Women's Politics Politicians join fight to keep women on British banknotes Exclusive: David Cameron has been called upon by 46 female Labour MPs and peers, including Harriet Harman, the party’s deputy leader, and Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, to back a campaign to keep a woman on British banknotes. Elizabeth Fry is being replaced by Sir Winston Churchill. By Emma Barnett , Women's Editor 7:00AM BST 21 Jun 2013 Comments The outgoing Bank of England governor, Sir Mervyn King announced in April 2013 that Sir Winston Churchill will replace social reformer Elizabeth Fry on the face of the new five pound notes from 2016. The decision means that there will be no women represented for their contributions to the country’s history on the British banknote, apart from Her Majesty the Queen. Now 46 members of Parliament and of the House of Lords have written letters to both the Prime Minister and the Bank of England’s Court of Directors in a bid to reverse the decision.

The letter to the Bank calls for the decision to be reviewed and for the Court, which is made up of the Bank of England’s non executive directors, who scrutinise its decisions, to discuss the issue at its next meeting. A copy of the document seen by Telegraph Wonder Women says: “We ask that you seek to review the decision about Elizabeth Fry and ensure that the Bank plays its role in celebrating the contribution of women to our country. We are sharing our letter with the Prime Minister to ask him to join us in raising these concerns and recognising the contribution of women across all spheres of public life. “We would welcome confirmation this correspondence will be discussed at your forthcoming meeting on the July 17 as well as a positive reply to our request.” Related Articles Marriage vows 24 Jun 2013 It is understood that the Court of Directors will indeed discuss the issue at their next meeting, after receiving the letter yesterday afternoon. Stella Creasy, the Labour MP and a shadow home affairs minister, who has led the campaign in Westminster, told The Telegraph that the letter wasn’t intended to deny Sir Winston a much deserved place on a banknote. “No one is having a pop at Sir Winston. He is a highly respected figure.

But we are trying to draw attention to the consequences of taking Fry off. It’s about the message that a total absence of women, bar the Queen, from our banknotes sends to our society. We don’t understand the Bank’s decision,” she explained. “We want a commitment to the public representation of women in this country, and we believe the Prime Minister should join us.” Earlier this month the Bank said it would stand by its decision to remove Elizabeth Fry from the current £5 note, after being confronted by Caroline Criado-Perez, a women’s rights campaigner , who has launched an online petition , (with nearly 30,000 signatures at the time of writing) to keep a woman on British banknotes. She has now launched a legal challenge against the Bank of England, accusing them of ignoring the Equality Act. Yesterday the Women's Engineering Society also wrote to the Bank of England , calling for a female engineer to take her place on banknotes. Only one other woman has ever featured on a British banknote and that was Florence Nightingale.

The MPs have suggested a number of other prominent women who could take their place on British tender: “There are many wonderful women whose contribution to our national life should be celebrated - for example Mary Seacole, Mary Wollstencraft, Emmeline Pankhurst or Rosalind Franklin.” Other high profile signatories of the letter include: Dame Tessa Jowell, the former shadow Olympics minister and Baroness Jan Royall, the leader of the House of Lords. A spokesman for the Bank of England said: “The Bank did consider the representation of women when selecting the next figure to feature on a banknote. The selection decision was made taking into account objectively selected criteria. Four candidates, three men a woman, were considered when Sir Winston Churchill was chosen as the historical character to appear on the next new banknote, and the female candidate was chosen as the contingency candidate.” The letter to the Court of Directors in full: Dear Sirs, We are writing to you as the Court of Directors of the Bank of England to express our concerns following the Bank’s announcement it intends to remove the only woman historical figure to be celebrated on our bank notes.

Like many people across the country we support the celebration of Winston Churchill on our banknotes, given his immense service to our country. However we are very disappointed that the Bank has taken this decision in a way that means for the first time for a decade, all those celebrated on our bank notes will be men. The celebration of our history and the contribution made by great citizens on our legal tender is something of which we are very proud. And the Bank will understand the great symbolism of the faces that appear on our national currency. That is why it is so deeply disappointing that the Bank should choose not to celebrate the contribution of any women to British history and our national life. The Bank has given no explanation of why Elizabeth Fry is being replaced rather than one of the other figures. The Court will know too that if all the historical figures are being replaced there are many wonderful women whose contribution to our national life should be celebrated - for example Mary Seacole, Mary Wollstencraft, Emmeline Pankhurst or Rosalind Franklin.

Indeed, the fact that Florence Nightingale is the only other woman who has ever been represented alongside Elizabeth Fry also suggests there is a need for the Bank to show stronger leadership in honouring the role of women in our nation’s history. We would also expect the Bank to consider its leadership role on these issues as part of its duties under the Equality Act. Given these concerns, we ask that you seek to review the decision about Elizabeth Fry and ensure that the Bank plays its role in celebrating the contribution of women to our country. We are sharing our letter with the Prime Minister to ask him to join us in raising these concerns and recognising the contribution of women across all spheres of public life. We would welcome confirmation this correspondence will be discussed at your forthcoming meeting on the 17th July as well as a positive reply to our request. We look forward to your response prior to this event. Yours sincerely, Jane Austen to appear on £10 note | Business | The Guardian Bank of England Jane Austen to appear on £10 note Bank of England governor Mark Carney says author will feature from 2017 in victory for activists calling for more female faces The Bank of England's design for a £10 note featuring Jane Austen.

Click for full picture. Photograph: Bank of England. Close This article is 3 years old Jane Austen has been confirmed as the next face of the £10 note in a victory for campaigners demanding female representation – aside from the Queen – on the country's cash. Sir Mervyn King, the Bank's former governor, had let slip to MPs that the author of Pride and Prejudice was "waiting in the wings" as a potential candidate to feature on a banknote, and his successor, Mark Carney, confirmed on Wednesday that she would feature, probably from 2017. "Jane Austen certainly merits a place in the select group of historical figures to appear on our banknotes. Her novels have an enduring and universal appeal and she is recognised as one of the greatest writers in English literature," the new governor said. He also announced that the Bank would carry out a review of the process for selecting the historical figures who appear on banknotes, to ensure that a diverse range of figures is represented. "We believe that our notes should celebrate the full diversity of great British historical figures and their contributions in a wide range of fields. The Bank is committed to that objective, and we want people to have confidence in our commitment to diversity.

That is why I am today announcing a review of the selection process for future banknote characters," Carney said. The review will be overseen by the chief cashier Chris Salmon, whose signature appears on banknotes. Carney's announcement was aimed at quelling a three-month storm of protest unleashed when King announced that the only woman to appear on an English banknote other than the Queen – the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry – would be replaced by Winston Churchill, probably in 2016. She and Florence Nightingale are the only two women, other than the Queen, to have appeared on English banknotes since they started portraying historical figures in 1970. Campaigners threatened to take the Bank to court for discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act and launched a petition on the campaign site Change.org which secured more than 35,000 signatures. Caroline Criado-Perez, co-founder of feminist blog the Women's Room , who led the campaign, and was called in to discuss the issue with Salmon, said the Bank's announcement marked a "brilliant day for women".

"Without this campaign, without the 35,000 people who signed our Change.org petition, the Bank of England would have unthinkingly airbrushed women out of history. We warmly welcome this move from the Bank and thank them for listening to us and taking such positive and emphatic steps to address our concerns," she said. "To hear Jane Austen confirmed is fantastic, but to hear the process will be comprehensively reviewed is even better." Campaigners said that the £13,000 raised to challenge the Bank's banknote decision in court would now go to women's charities, including Rape Crisis. Austen will take her place on the £10 note in 2017, the bicentenary of her death, replacing the 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin, who has been on the notes since late 2000. Criado-Perez conceded Austen was not top of her wish-list as the next woman on a bank note but that she was a particularly apt choice given the context. "She was an incredibly intelligent woman. She spent her time poking fun at the establishment. All her books are about how women are trapped and misrepresented.

It is really sad that she was saying that 200 years ago and I am still having to say that today," the campaigner said. Stella Creasy MP, who helped organise a letter from 46 Labour MPs to David Cameron in support of the campaign, said: "Britain has many women in its history of whom we should be proud, and today's decision is part of creating a culture of expectation that there will be many more in our future too." Under the current process, members of the public put forward suggestions on who should appear on banknotes, although the Bank only considers figures who have made an "indisputable contribution to their particular field of work". It takes into account the list of public suggestions, but the governor of the Bank has the final decision.

As well as a portrait of Austen, the new note will include images of her writing desk and quills at Chawton Cottage, in Hampshire, where she lived; her brother's home, Godmersham Park, which she visited often, and is thought to have inspired some of her novels, and a quote from Miss Bingley, in Pride and Prejudice: "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" ::: A Short History of English Banknotes ::: Where did banknotes come from? The earliest banking involved money-changing between coin and bullion and between different currencies, issuing bills of exchange (in the form of a letter asking one person to pay a sum of money to another on behalf of the person who wrote the letter) and accepting deposit of valuables or money which earned interest. English bankers found they had a steady level of money deposited with them and used this to provide loans on which they then charged interest. About this time they allowed customers to transfer a credit amount to someone else by writing an order to the bank - the forerunner of the bank 'cheque'. It was the bill of exchange which led to the issue of banknotes.

On 27th July 1694 William Paterson, a Scottish merchant originally from Tinwald in Dumfries, obtained a Royal Charter from the king, William III, to form the the Bank of England in order to raise funds for the government of the day and started to issue banknotes. These were handwritten and made out to an individual who could cash them at any branch of the issuing bank. The Bank of England Act was passed which established the Bank of England as the worldï¿½s first national bank. Its first Governor was Sir John Houblon and the first Chief Cashier, briefly, was John Kendrick, about whom little is known. In 1697 the first watermark was introduced. From 1725 the notes were partially printed with just the name to whom payable, date, amount and cashierï¿½s signature to be filled in by hand. Businessmen set up banks in London and 'provincial' banks as a way of raising capital for investment from the late eighteenth century. However by 1770 London banks had given up issuing their own notes and used the Bank of England banknotes instead.

The banknotes from 1725 were issued for amounts of ï¿½20, ï¿½25, ï¿½30 up to ï¿½100 in ï¿½10 stages, then ï¿½100 to ï¿½500 in ï¿½100 stages and lastly a ï¿½1000 note; in 1759 the first ï¿½10 and ï¿½15 notes appeared, in 1793 with economic difficulties due to the Napoleonic War a ï¿½5 note was introduced and in 1797 ï¿½2 and ï¿½1 notes. A total of 19 different notes! Worth noting that at this time ï¿½5 was more than the average working person earned in a year so rarely seen! The appearance of the low denomination notes meant that gradually more of the general public had to come to terms with paper money but banknotes were easy to counterfeit as many of their new owners were illiterate and not used to handling notes.

In 1833 Bank of England banknotes were made legal tender for all sums above ï¿½5 in England and Wales as a way of protecting the Bankï¿½s bullion reserves in times of crisis. However most of the notes over ï¿½10 had disappeared by 1852, the ï¿½300 by 1893 and the ï¿½200 in 1918. This left just the ï¿½10, ï¿½20, ï¿½50, ï¿½100, ï¿½500 and ï¿½1000 which were withdrawn in 1943. The ï¿½10 reappeared in 1964, the ï¿½20 in 1970 and the ï¿½50 in 1981. The big change came in 1855 when banknotes were fully printed including the chief cashierï¿½s signature and had the words I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ....

People could use a banknote instead of coins and the system worked as long as people had confidence that the bank had the coin to redeem the note. In 1884 the Government decided to regulate the issue of banknotes by the Bank Charter Act and from then on the private provincial banks gradually merged until by 1921 the last provincial note had been issued. In 1914, the first issue Treasury notes, red 10 shillings and black ï¿½1, were signed by Sir John Bradbury and afterwards Sir Norman Fenwick Warren Fisher. A Tale of Two Women Up to 1928 banknotes were ï¿½whiteï¿½ notes printed in black on white paper and unprinted on the back. However on 22nd November the Bank of England took over the issue of banknotes from the Treasury and produced full colour 10/- and ï¿½1 notes printed on both sides. This first series is called Britannia Series A as they featured a rather demure seated Britannia with curiously a spear and an olive branch possibly offering a choice of peace or war.

The bee skep beside her may symbolise the bank as a store of the nation's riches or the industry of the bank in looking after the nationï¿½s money. The idea of dressing Britannia as a noble Saxon lady came from Daniel Maclise, RA, in 1855 who used his daughter as the model. The ornamental clasp on her cape indicates a rank of nobility. They were issued up to the early 1960's by four Chief Cashiers, Basil Catterns (19th Chief Cashier) 29-34, Kenneth Peppiatt 34-49, Percival Beale 49-55 and Leslie Oï¿½Brien 55-62. During the period from 1926 on the Bank of England set up 14 branches around the country which issued banknotes. However most ended by 1938, only Swansea continued until 1959 and Leicester issued notes from 1944 to 1972.

During the Second World War Germany produced some excellent forgeries so in 1940 the color of the Peppiatt 10/- note was altered to mauve and the ï¿½1 to blue. The regular colours returned after the war. In February 1957 the white ï¿½5 was finally replaced by a curious single note series known as Helmeted Britannia Series B. These were only issued under L.K.Oï¿½Brien and feature this lovely portrait. The artist Richard Horsman Solly created the first helmeted Britannia in 1818 as a proposal for a new series of ï¿½inimitableï¿½ one pound notes. The image was never used but artist Stephen Gooden recalled it almost exactly for the Britannia used on this blue five-pound note. On the reverse is a superb lion carrying a key. This note only lasted until 1964 when the Queen had given her permission to include her portrait on banknotes and the Portrait Series C appeared with a portrait designed by Robert Austin, Professor of Engraving at the Royal College of Art.

The 10/- note was issued from 1963, the ï¿½1 from 1960, the ï¿½5 from 1963 and the ï¿½10 from 1964 by four Chief Cashiers, Leslie Oï¿½Brien, Jasper Hollom 62-66, John Fforde 66-70 and John Page 70-80. On the Jasper Hollom ï¿½5 and ï¿½10 notes, the Queen has turned to look at us and a rather sad Britannia on the reverse of the ï¿½5 has found a shield and a pile of boulders. On the reverse of the ï¿½10, a rather odd lion holds the key. Ten years later the next series began to appear - the Pictorial Series D with a gentler portrait of the Queen and full-length pictures of English notables on the reverse. The John Fforde 10 shilling note had been replaced by the 50p coin in 1968 and so the smallest denomination from then on was the ï¿½1 note.

The notes featured: ï¿½1 - Sir Isaac Newton ï¿½5 - Duke of Wellington ï¿½10 - Florence Nightingale ï¿½20 - William Shakespeare ï¿½50 - Sir Christopher Wren The ï¿½1 note was issued from 1978, the ï¿½5 from 1971, the ï¿½10 from 1975, the ï¿½20 from 1970 and the ï¿½50 from 1981. The Chief Cashiers who issued them were John Fforde, John Page, David Somerset 80-88, Malcolm Gill 88-91 and Graham Kentfield 91-98. With devaluation over the years, the ï¿½1 note was replaced by a coin in 1983 and the last ï¿½1 note was issued by David Somerset in 1985. It went out of circulation in 1988. The next major series came in 1990 with Historical Series E.

A more mature Queen's portrait by artist Harry Eccleston and portraits of famous people and appropriate scenes on the reverse. Incidentally this series was the first to include a copyright notice although it always was, and is, a criminal offence to forge banknotes so what its purpose is remains obscure. The notes featured: ï¿½5 - George Stephenson and the Rocket locomotive ï¿½10 - Charles Dickens and The Pickwick Papers ï¿½20 - Michael Faraday and the Christmas Lectures ï¿½50 - Sir John Houblon and his house in Threadneedle Street. The green ï¿½5 note was issued from June 1990, the ï¿½10 from April 1992, the ï¿½20 from June 1991 (all revised in 1993 to aid the partially sighted) and the ï¿½50 from April 1994. The three Chief Cashiers who issued this series were Malcolm Gill, Graham Kentfield and Merlyn Lowther 99-03, who was the first female Chief Cashier.

Finally New (Revised) Series E ï¿½5 - Elizabeth Fry, showing a scene with her reading to prisoners in Newgate Prison ï¿½10 - Charles Darwin, a hummingbird and the HMS Beagle ï¿½20 - Sir Edward Elgar with a view of the west face of Worcester Cathedral. The ï¿½5 was issued from May 2002, the ï¿½10 from November 2000 and the ï¿½20 from June 1999. This replacement series was issued by Merlyn Lowther. In March 2007 the first note from the New Series F entered circulation. ï¿½20 - Adam Smith, with an illustration of ï¿½The division of labour in pin manufacturingï¿½, replaced the Series E Elgar note. It was issued by Andrew Bailey, the 30th Chief Cashier of the Bank of England. Sadly Britannia is now relegated to a very minor role and, only 7mm tall she is tucked away in a corner with her rocks, branch, spear and shield. Paper and Printing The paper used has always been chosen so as to give a distinct look and feel.

It is 80 to 90 gsm paper manufactured from cotton fibre sometimes mixed with linen and is impregnated with polyvinyl alcohol or gelatin to give it extra strength. One of the first papermakers was the firm started by a Huguenot, Henri de Portal, in 1712 at Bere Mill and in 1718 at Laverstoke Mill both on the river Test near Overton in Hampshire and carried on by his son Joseph Portal who bought Laverstoke Manor. They produced paper for Bank of England notes from 1724. They also invented the metallic thread incorporated into the paper which started off within the paper and latterly is allowed to come to the surface as a dotted line called 'windowed thread'. Printing is a combination of three processes ï¿½ Offset Lithography for the background tints and fine lines; Intaglio Printing gives the stronger coloured fine detail with slightly raised print and also never completely dries which is a useful security test; Letterpress is used for serial numbers. Some printing changes have been marked on the reverse of the banknotes.

In 1973 the Somerset ï¿½1 note was printed on a new web press and a little W appears; the ï¿½5 was also moved to a web press with offset lithography on the reverse, marked L; the 1984 ï¿½10 note on a web press was also marked W on the reverse. The latest security features to make life difficult for forgers include: holograms, fluorescent features, varnish coating, foil impression, windowed metallic thread and extremely fine print. POSTSCRIPT: Numismatics is the study of money, particularly coins, and a numismatist is a collector. However Notaphily is the study of paper money or banknotes and a notaphilist is a collector of such (according to Wikipedia). More about English coins .

Sources: historicle figures - Pam West British Bank Notes historicle figures HISTORICAL FIGURES ON BANK OF ENGLAND BANKNOTES by Jonathan Callaway The recent announcement by the Bank of England that they intend to introduce a new fiver in 2016 with Sir Winston Churchill on the back, replacing Elizabeth Fry, has prompted a lot of media interest in who appears on our banknotes and how these decisions are taken. This article looks at who we have seen so far and considers who might come next. Prior to 1928 Bank of England banknotes had hardly changed since the 18th century; they all looked like the old white fiver. But 1928 saw the introduction of a green £1 note and a reddish-brown 10 shillings note to replace the UK’s Treasury issues. The white fiver, meanwhile, continued to reign supreme right up to 1956.

The many higher denominations had all been withdrawn in 1944 thanks to Operation Bernhard, the massive counterfeiting operation undertaken by Nazi Germany, so until 1956 the population had to make do with just three Bank of England denominations and nothing larger than a five pound note. The white fiver was replaced by the blue ‘Lion and Key’ five pound note, a beautiful but short-lived design replaced after only ten years. It was only in 1960 that the Queen first appeared on a Bank of England note, accompanied on the reverse by a stylised image of Britannia. Britannia, an allegorical female representation of Britain, had always appeared on Bank of England notes in a vignette based on the Bank’s seal. She had also frequently appeared on English provincial banknotes in the 19th century, usually with sword and shield and sometimes with a lion at her feet in a range of poses from the frankly militaristic to the demurely feminine. The front of the Lion and Key fiver carried a bold image of Britannia wearing a Roman helmet, an image more classical Victorian than Elizabethan.

Britannia continues to appear on every note, be it as a small vignette, in the watermark or as one of the images in the hologram security device. Arguably, therefore, current Bank of England notes already have two females on them, the Queen and Britannia. In the late 1960s the Bank started thinking about further changes to its banknote designs and the view was formed that introducing historical figures on them would enhance their attractiveness while giving scope to the designers to bring in more anti-counterfeiting design features. It took until July 1970 for the Bank finally to get round to putting the first historical figure on one of its notes. The note chosen to initiate the new series was the re-introduced £20 note in a lovely design with the Queen on the front accompanied by a delightful vignette of George and the Dragon. On the reverse we see the first in a long line of historical figures, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

It is difficult to think of a more fitting figure than our national poet and playwright to start this process but less well known is the fact that had the Bank decided not to issue a new 50 pence note to replace the old 10/- note, the honour would have gone to Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries but better known as an adventurer and explorer than as a writer (he wrote poetry). The 50p note was scuppered when a 50p coin was introduced instead. Shakespeare lasted 23 years on the £20 note before making way for Michael Faraday. We will now look at all those who came after him, taking them in chronological order. A summary at the end lists all these historical figures by denomination and date. In 1971 the next figure to appear was the Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), who shared the back of the new £5 note with a depiction of one of his famous victories, the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro. He lasted 20 years on the note.

The Duke was not only a famous military figure but also a former Prime Minister responsible for the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act (he was Irish born, though a Protestant) and presiding over the 1832 Reform Act. The next figure to appear, and the first female historical figure, was Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) in 1975. She enjoyed 19 years on the back of the £10 note and her image was accompanied by a scene from the hospital in Scutari (now part of modern Istanbul in Asian Turkey) where she first came to public attention for nursing soldiers wounded in the Crimean War. In 1856, after the war ended, she returned to Britain and went on to establish a number of training facilities for nurses. In 1978 the last £1 note was introduced with Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) on the reverse. This small note, known as the ‘Luncheon Voucher’ was in circulation for only ten years and was the Bank of England’s last £1 note before it was withdrawn and replaced by a £1 coin.

Newton qualifies to appear on a banknote for his most famous moment, when the apple fell on his head and he ‘discovered’ gravity. This story is however apocryphal but he did write of watching apples fall and wondering why they always fell straight to earth. In 1687 Newton published his single greatest work, the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ('Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy') which embodied his studies on gravity. He was by far the most eminent scientist of his day and felt by many to have been as influential on the development of physics as Albert Einstein himself. He found time amongst his scientific research and writing to become the Master of the Royal Mint, a position he took very seriously in his pursuit of counterfeiters. In 1981 we see Sir Christopher Wren appear (1632-1723) on the back of the newly re-introduced £50 note.

This was the first note of this denomination since 1944 and remains the highest Bank of England denomination (and is likely to stay as such, the Bank apparently deciding against issuing a £100 note on the grounds that it would give out a potentially inflationary signal and be used mainly in the cash economy). Wren appears along with an image of St Paul’s Cathedral, his most famous creation. Apart from being one of our most famous architects, Wren was also one of the founding members of the Royal Society and devoted much of his earlier years to the study of astronomy. In 1990 the Bank started a new series of notes, slightly reduced in size to previous issues. The theme of featuring a historical character on each note continued, however. The new series began with a new fiver portraying George Stephenson (1781-1848) on the reverse. He is seen with the Rocket, the famous steam locomotive he built and first ran on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. It had a top speed of an impressive 36mph.

Its success ushered in the railway age when thousands of miles of lines were built all over the UK, making a huge contribution to the success of the industrial revolution. A year later, in 1991, a new £20 note joined the tenner, this time the featured figure being Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Faraday was another scientist, his speciality being electromagnetism, a principle which paved the way for the development of electric motors. He devoted much time to lecturing and instituted the annual Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution which continue to this day. An image of him delivering one of these lectures appears alongside his portrait. The £10 note was updated the following year, in 1992, and Charles Dickens (1812-1870) joins the illustrious list of historical figures. Dickens is still a hugely popular author as attested to by the numerous screen and TV adaptations of his novels. The note carries a scene from the cricket match described in the Pickwick Papers, one of his most successful novels.

In 1994 the £50 note was redesigned and a new figure appears on the reverse, Sir John Houblon (1632-1712), the Bank of England’s first Governor. Arguably the least well-known historical figure to appear on their banknotes, he is also one of the longest-lasting, still there after nearly 20 years. In 1999 it was decided to replace the £20 note once again, prompted perhaps by the increasing occurrence of attempts to forge the notes. The previous £20 note had lasted just ten years and this new one, featuring Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), lasted just eleven. Elgar is one of Britain’s most famous composers who wrote a number of popular works such as his Pomp and Circumstance marches including Land of Hope and Glory. He made his name in the pre-First World War period with his composition Enigma Variations. A year later in 2000 a new £10 note was issued, featuring Charles Darwin (1809-1882).

Darwin is rightly lauded for his hugely influential work The Origin of the Species, which revolutionised scientific thought and propelled Darwin into the forefront of top-ranking scientists. It was however a controversial book in its day and even today is challenged by some religious groups. Darwin’s beard is said to have influenced the choice of his portrait given the apparent difficulty it presented to the banknote engravers – and thus to potential forgers. This consideration does not appear to have worked against the bald and clean-shaven Churchill. In 2002 Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) was selected to grace the reverse of a new £5 note. She was a prominent 19th century philanthropist and penal reformer, a Quaker born into the Gurney banking family who were one of several Quaker families whose banks were merged to create today’s Barclays Bank. Her husband was a member of the Fry family who founded the J S Fry chocolate and confectionary business. In 2007 yet another £20 note was issued, with the first Scot to appear on an English note, Adam Smith (1723-1790).

Smith is considered by many as the father of modern economics whose work The Wealth of Nations argued in favour of free trade and the division of labour – thus providing a theoretical basis for the modern industrial factory system. There is no sign of any of the Scottish banks wishing to reciprocate by putting an Englishman on one of their notes, and indeed the Clydesdale could rightfully accuse the Bank of England of pinching their idea – Adam Smith featured on their £50 notes from 1981 to 2009. The most recent note to be introduced was another first, in that two figures were selected to appear on the reverse of a new £50 note in 2011, Matthew Boulton (1718-1809) and James Watt (1736-1819). Their claim to fame was their collaboration in the development of steam engines which powered many of the factories of the Victorian industrial revolution. They also established a coin mint in Soho, near Birmingham which supplied the Royal Mint as well as many foreign governments.

While the Bank is not easily influenced in its decision-making about who appears on its banknotes it does keep a list on its website of all the suggestions for new names made by the public. They range from Geoffrey Chaucer to David Beckham but the latter is highly unlikely to appear if the Bank sticks to its stated criteria, that the individual must be universally recognised as having made an outstanding and lasting contribution in their chosen field – and, though not explicitly stated – be dead. The choice of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) on the new fiver is proving not uncontroversial. A feminist campaign group is threatening legal action under the Equality Act, insisting that the Bank reconsider its decision and choose another female figure. The Bank is currently resisting this and is refusing to disclose how its decision was actually made, though they do say that the final decision always rests with the Governor and that a shortlist of four had been drawn up (of which only one was female). One suspects, however, that when Darwin is eventually replaced on the £10 note they may reveal a greater sensitivity to arguments about women’s rights. Jane Austen or Emmeline Pankhurst anyone?

SUMMARY OF HISTORICAL FIGURES ON BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES STOP PRESS Looks like it will be Jane Austen! On 25 June 2013 the outgoing Governor of PRESS the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King hinted strongly that Jane Austen could indeed replace Charles Darwin on the £10 note in 2017. She has been “quietly waiting in the wings” and is one of the figures the Bank has been working for over two years. A formal announcement might take place before the new Churchill notes appear, probably in 2016, though the final decision will rest with the incoming Governor, Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of Canada. He would be a brave man to change it now!

Question: Who was the first woman to be featured on the reverse of a British banknote?
Answer: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE